Field observations indicate that the height of submarine levees decays with distance from the channel either exponentially or according to a power law. This investigation clarifies the flow conditions that lead to these respective shapes, via a shallow water model for the overflow currents that govern the levee formation. The model is based on a steady state balance of sediment supply by the turbidity current, and sediment deposition onto the levee, with the settling velocity and the entrainment rate appearing as parameters. It demonstrates that entrainment of ambient fluid is the determining factor for the levee shape. For negligible entrainment rates, levee shapes tend to exhibit exponential profiles, while constant rates of entrainment or detrainment result in power law shapes. Interestingly, whether a levee has an exponential or a power law shape is determined by kinematic considerations only, viz. the balance laws for sediment mass and fluid volume. We find that the respective coefficients governing the exponential or power law decay depend on the settling speeds of the sediment grains, which in turn is a function of the grain size. Two-dimensional, unsteady Navier–Stokes simulations confirm the emergence of a quasi-steady state. The depositional behaviour of this quasi-steady state is consistent with the predictions of the shallow water model, thus validating the assumptions underlying the model, and demonstrating its predictive abilities.


A human‐made entrance to a side channel separated from the river by a longitudinal training dam can be considered a new, emergent type of river bifurcation. To understand the processes controlling the diversion of flow and sediment toward the side channel at such bifurcations, a comprehensive field monitoring program was performed in the Waal River, which is the main branch of the Rhine River in the Netherlands. Local processes govern the flow field in the bifurcation region. The angle between the main river flow and the flow into the side channel increases with decreasing lateral and longitudinal distance to the bifurcation point, which corresponds to the head of the training dam. The general flow pattern can be well reproduced with a uniform depth, potential flow model consisting of a superposition of main channel flow and lateral outflow. For submerged flow conditions over the sill, the side channel hydraulic conditions influence the exchange processes, yet free flow side weir theory describes the flow field at this bifurcation type qualitatively well. The vertical flow structure in the side channel, which governs the sediment exchange between the main channel and the side channel, is steered by the geometrical details of the sill. The presence of the sill structure is key to controlling the morphological stability of this type of bifurcation given its primary influence on bed load sediment import and exerts an indirect impact on suspended sediment exchange.


Glyphosate is a widely applied broad-spectrum systemic herbicide that inhibits competitively the penultimate enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate 3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) from the shikimate pathway, thereby causing deleterious effects. A glyphosate-resistant Arabidopsis mutant (gre1) was isolated and genetic analyses indicated that a dysfunctional red (R) and far-red (FR) light receptor, phytochrome B (phyB), caused this phenotype. This finding is consistent with increased glyphosate sensitivity and glyphosate-induced shikimate accumulation in low R:FR light, and the induction of genes encoding enzymes of the shikimate pathway in high R:FR light. Expression of the shikimate pathway genes exhibited diurnal oscillation and this oscillation was altered in the phyB mutant. Furthermore, transcript analysis suggested that this diurnal oscillation was not only dependent on phyB but was also due to circadian regulatory mechanisms. Our data offer an explanation of the well documented observation that glyphosate treatment at various times throughout the day, with their specific composition of light quality and intensity, results in different efficiencies of the herbicide.


An approximate circuit model is proposed for mode extraction in two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides. The dispersion equation governing the complex propagation constant of the photonic crystal waveguide is then related to the resonance condition in the proposed circuit model. In this fashion, a scalar complex transcendental equation is given for mode extraction. To avoid searching for the complex roots of the derived scalar dispersion equation, however, the real and imaginary parts of the sought-after propagation constant are extracted by using the physical resonance condition and its corresponding quality factor in the here-proposed circuit model, respectively. All the necessary conditions for the accuracy of the proposed circuit model are discussed, and some numerical examples are given. It is fortunate that the proposed model can be applied for accurate mode extraction in most of the applications. Both major polarizations are considered.


Author(s): Vecellio Segate, Riccardo | Abstract: The first target of today's global commercial and military espionage, trade secrets, are the only form of intellectual property protection to be based on the necessity of nondisclosure and secrecy rather than on the paradigm of publicity and exploitability, with the obvious consequence that where confidentiality ends, no trade secret factually exists anymore. As such, current judicial remedies to trade secret thefts simply miss the point, treating trade secrets as rights which can be restored, rather than as assets that once stolen, are lost forever. Moreover, trade secrets often represent the "backbone" of a country's development: an invaluable strategic advantage for entire industrial systems, innovation environments, and national economies. Whereas a trade secret theft occurring within domestic borders transfers exploitability rather than causing damage to the economic ecosystem of the country concerned, international trade secret thefts may jeopardize states' economy and public security alike. For these reasons, the only way to protect trade secrets by law is through ensuring that their secrecy is reasonably safe by means of compulsory cybersecurity and cyber-hygiene standards to be complied with by their owners. When it comes to this specific form of IP, the only protection is afforded with prevention: injunctions and compensations can work as remedies for other IP rights' misappropriations and misexploitations, but do nothing to restore the peculiarity of a trade secret which is, indeed, its secrecy. Not only should companies be compelled to adopt and implement reasonable sector-specific IT security measures and procedures, but licensing agreements including know-how should feature a specific cybersecurity clause to be carefully negotiated. The new cybersecurity regimes of world powers like China seem to capture this problem, and to (involuntarily?) provide useful tools for addressing it beyond the schemes of intellectual property or tort (confidentiality) laws. Regrettably, other countries in the Pacific region appear to keep the belief that trade secret thefts are a private affair of the breached companies, which should seek redress via traditional judicial channels. This is to be deemed an outdated, misleading, shortsighted and ineffective approach.


OBJECTIVES
Despite the demonstrated utility of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in various demographic groups, it has never been validated in a sample of Indian subjects. To extend and confirm the PSQI's applicability for South Asian subjects, this preliminary study aimed to assess its psychometric and diagnostic validity in a sample of university students.

METHODS
Forty-seven male students were recruited from Jamia Millia Islamia, a public central university in New Delhi, India. The mean age of the students was 23.4±3.9 years, and they had a mean body mass index (BMI) of 23.3±3.3kg/m(2). The PSQI was administered to all subjects and overnight polysomnographic testing was carried out as a concurrent validation measure.

RESULTS
Cronbach's alpha for the questionnaire was found to be 0.736. Internal homogeneity was high, with the majority of correlations between questionnaire component scores and the summed global score being significant (p<0.010). Criterion validity-correlations between the PSQI global score and polysomnography (PSG) measures were low. However, the questionnaire component scores and the related polysomnographic measures did show some significant relationships. The optimal cut-off scores for distinguishing students with/without sleep problems was >6 and was generated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The area under the curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios at the cut-off score were 0.838 (p<0.0001), 75.0%, 88.9%, 6.75, and 0.280, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The study found evidence that the PSQI had internal consistency, internal homogeneity, and diagnostic characteristics that compared well with PSG among a sample of young adult male students in India. This supports the applicability and certain aspects of the validity of the PSQI in the population.


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic pulmonary disease that is complicated by diagnostic challenges, multiple comorbidities, and a poor prognosis. Although considered a relatively rare disease, healthcare costs are substantial and disproportionate to the incidence and prevalence of the disease. The comorbidities associated with IPF not only complicate treatment strategies but also increase the burden for patients via higher costs and undesirable health outcomes. Historically, pharmacologic treatment options for IPF have been limited and are often associated with low efficacy. Two drugs approved for IPF, nintedanib and pirfenidone, offer promise for improving health outcomes and survival during the course of the disease. Considerations of cost and adverse events are important when planning treatment options. Optimizing care through patient-centered care management programs can improve outcomes and health-related quality of life for patients. Such programs emphasize communication between healthcare professionals and patients in order to educate patients on their condition, so they can make informed healthcare decisions. Disease registries can be important tools for optimizing data collection and analysis for a disease with limited incidence and prevalence.


The aim of this paper is to study continuum models for surface diffusion taking into account free adatoms on the surface, which is of particular importance in the (self-assembled) growth of nanostructures. The extended model yields a coupled system of parabolic differential equations for the surface morphology and the adatom density, involving a cross-diffusion structure. We investigate two different situations, namely the growth of a film on a substrate and the growth of a crystal-like structure (a closed curve or surface). An investigation of the equilibrium situation, which can be phrased as an energy minimization problem subject to a mass constraint, shows a different behaviour in both situations: for the film the equilibrium is attained when all atoms are attached to the surface, while for a crystal the adatom density does not vanish on the surface. The latter is also a deviation from the usual equilibrium theory, since the equilibrium shape will be strictly included in the Wulff shape. Moreover, it turns out that the total energy is not lower semicontinuous and non-convex for large adatom densities and rough surfaces. The dynamics of the adatom surface diffusion model is investigated in detail for situations close to a flat surface in the film case and the situation close to a radially symmetric curve, both with an almost spatially homogeneous adatom density, where the cross-diffusion structure of the model and the decay to equilibrium can be studied in detail. Finally, we discuss the numerical solution of the adatom surface diffusion model in the film case and provide various simulation results.


Neural network approaches for meta-learning distributions over functions have desirable properties such as increased flexibility and a reduced complexity of inference. Building on the successes of denoising diffusion models for generative modelling, we propose Neural Diffusion Processes (NDPs), a novel approach that learns to sample from a rich distribution over functions through its finite marginals. By introducing a custom attention block we are able to incorporate properties of stochastic processes, such as exchangeability, directly into the NDP's architecture. We empirically show that NDPs can capture functional distributions close to the true Bayesian posterior, demonstrating that they can successfully emulate the behaviour of Gaussian processes and surpass the performance of neural processes. NDPs enable a variety of downstream tasks, including regression, implicit hyperparameter marginalisation, non-Gaussian posterior prediction and global optimisation.


While it is commonly agreed that analogy is useful in human problem solving, exactly how analogy can and should be used remains an intriguing problem. VanLehn (1998) for instance argues that there are differences in how novices and experts use analogy, but the VanLehn and Jones (1993) Cascade model does not implement these differences. This paper analyzes several variations in strategies for using analogy to explore possible sources of novice/expert differences. We describe a series of ablation experiments on an expert model to examine the effects of strategy variations in using analogy in problem solving. We provide evidence that failing to use qualitative reasoning when encoding problems, being careless in validating analogical inferences, and not using multiple retrievals can degrade the efficiency of problem-solving.


A total of 1840 children and adolescents treated with cyproterone acetate (CPA) to block gonadal function, as a treatment for precocious puberty, short stature and other disorders, were registered to survey for the risk of developing hepatic tumors. Patients responding to follow-up numbered 1552 (85%). The cumulative dose and duration of CPA therapy for boys and girls were 110.4g and 2.6 years, and 122.9 g and 2.8 years, respectively. Among the 1552 patients, five hepatoma cases were found. Four underwent successful surgery and remain alive and well to date. Two of the 5 cases had been given more than 500g, the other 3 more than 1000 g, of CPA. Three had also been given androgens before CPA administration. Although further follow-up is necessary to monitor for the development of adenoma and hepatoma, the risk of developing these tumors among patients to whom limited doses of CPA were administered appears to be negligible. J Epidemiol, 1997 ; 7 : 173-178.


We study the synthesis and physical properties of Pb2-xLnxRu2O7- (Ln = Sm, Eu) compounds with pyrochlore structure. The lead-lanthanoid pyrochlores Pb2-xLnxRu2O7- (Ln = Sm, Eu) have been successfully synthesized by the solid-state reaction. All samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, magnetic susceptibility, and electrical resistivity measurements. Magnetic susceptibility measurements showed that the spin-glass transition temperature, TSG, decreases with Ln content x and goes to zero at x = 0.2 and 0.6 for Sm and Eu, respectively. From electric resistivity measurements, a crossover from metallic to semiconducting behavior was observed in the range of 0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.4 and 0.4 ≤ x ≤ 0.8 in Pb2-xSmxRu2O7- and Pb2-xEuxRu2O7-, respectively. These boundaries between metallic and insulating phases mostly correspond to values of x with TSG = 0. These metal-insulator transitions can be caused by the strongly correlated couplings between the itinerant 4d electrons which are possibly attributed to the magnetic frustration.


Time series analysis and Grassmannians by V. M. Buchstaber Inversion of the generalized Radon transform by A. S. Denisyuk Generalized projection and section theorems in diffraction tomography by A. N. Panchenko Computation of singular convolutions by D. A. Popov and D. V. Sushko Mathematical models in two-dimensional Radon tomography by D. A. Popov, E. B. Sokolova, and D. V. Sushko Mathematical aspects of polarization tomography by V. A. Sharafutdinov Exponential Radon transform by I. Ya. Shneiberg On a new reconstruction algorithm in emission tomography by I. Ya. Shneiberg, I. V. Ponomarev, V. A. Dmitrichenko, and S. D. Kalashnikov Examples of nonuniquenss in problems related to the generalized Radon transform and emission tomography with absorption by L. Vertgeim.


The proliferation of social networks in digital media has proved to be fruitful, but this rise in popularity is accompanied by user privacy concerns. Social network data has been published in various ways and preserving the privacy of individuals in the published data has become an important concern. Several algorithms have been developed for privacy preservation in relational data, but these algorithms cannot be applied directly to social networks as the nodes here have structural properties along with labels. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to achieve k-anonymity and l-diversity in social network data which provides structural anonymity along with sensitive attribute protection. The proposed algorithm uses novel edge addition techniques which are also presented in this paper. We also propose a concept of partial anonymity to reduce anonymization cost for d>1. The empirical study shows that our algorithm requires significantly less number of edge additions for anonymization of social network data and has a substantially lower running time than the other algorithms previously proposed in the field.


Magnetic survey methods are used to locate the blowing wellbore when drilling a relief well. If no magnetic material is present in the openhole section of the blowing well, the last set casing shoe is the deepest possible intersection point. A deeper intersection point will increase the hydrostatic head, increase the frictional pressure drop and allow a lower density kill fluid to be used. A new potential method called surface seismic while drilling (SSWD), could make it possible to intersect the blowing well below the casing shoe. This method is not dependent of any casing or steel tubular present in the well to identify the relative wellbore positions. The SSWD method is based on a surface seismic source generator and a receiver array located on the seabed. Preliminary simulations indicate that it is possible to locate the wellpaths of the two wells on the seismic data. This method will allow real-time seismic monitoring of the well paths without interfering with the drilling operation. This can allow for more precise relative wellbore positioning. To investigate the benefits of a deeper intersection, a simulation model was prepared. A vertical offshore well consisting of 2000 meters of casing, and a 1000-meter openhole section were used. The well was killed dynamically by circulating seawater at high rates into the blowing wellbore. Compared to a casing shoe intersection, simulations show that a bottom hole intersection would reduce the flow rate and pump pressure by approximately 48% and 55%, respectively. The required kill mud weight was reduced by 24 %. The seismic method may also be used in conventional well killing operation to provide additional information of the position of the two wellbores and potentially reduce the time needed to drill the relief well. This paper presents the SSWD method and the potential improvements in relief well drilling and well killing. Introduction A blowout is by far the most severe consequence of loss in well control. Because of the tremendous powers at play, a blowout can rapidly become a disastrous event. Large volumes of hydrocarbons and toxic gasses can be released to the surface, potentially causing huge environmental damage and put human lives at jeopardy. Considering the resources required to stop the blowout, penalties imposed on the liable, reduction in share values, lost hydrocarbon resources, and destroyed reputation of companies involved, a blowout often becomes a dramatic and costly ordeal. If loss in well control escalates to a blowout, it is important that the well is brought under control fast and safely, and in a terminal manner. This might require a relief well to be drilled to intersect the blowing well at a certain depth, and kill it by pumping liquid into the blowing wellbore until overbalance is retained. Modern relief wells are drilled to directly intersect the blowing wellbore. The target is often smaller than 10 inches and the depth can be several thousand meters. Conventional surveying techniques do not offer the accuracy needed to accomplish this, and for that reason ranging tools that home in on steel tubular in the blowing well is used once the relief well is close enough. This often means that the last set casing shoe is the deepest point available for a relief well. If an extended openhole section


The article starts by considering one of the main features of Solženicyn's prose, the presence of proverbs. The author analyzes this attribute in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovic , Matryona's Home and, especially regarding The Oak and the Calf , discusses these works as part of wisdom literature . Proverbs in Solženicyn's works are not mere expression of Russian folklore; they reveal God's order of the world and God's guidance of human lives. The Gulag is not only a Soviet form of punishment, but also an extraordinary school of life and of wisdom. Experiences teach ultimate truths. The trained zek is not only a good buddy, but is presented as the wise man, the prudent and skilled saddiq who knows how to behave in the extreme Gulag conditions. He is the saddiq who tries to decipher God's plan for his life. In the end, Solženicyn's characters must be interpreted in light of wisdom literature, within which they are not heroic, but virile, prudent, slow-moving, meek, thrifty, experts of life and people.


Finely structured ceramic coatings can be obtained by solution precursor plasma spraying. The final structure of the coating highly depends on the droplet size and velocity distribution at the injection, the evolution of the spray in the jet, and droplet breakup and collision within the spray. This paper describes a 3D model to simulate the transport phenomena and the trajectory and heating of the solution spray in the process. O'Rourke's droplet collision model is used to take into account of the influence of droplet collision. The influence of droplet breakup is also considered by implementing TAB and Wave droplet breakup models into the plasma jet model. The effects of droplet collisions and breakup on the droplet size, velocity, and temperature distribution of the solution spray are investigated. The results indicate that droplet breakup and collision play an important role in determining the final particle size and velocity distributions on the substrate.


Elective curriculums require undergraduates to choose from a large roster of courses for enrollment each term. It has proven difficult to characterize this fateful choice process because it remains largely unobserved. Using digital trace data to observe this process at scale at a private research university, together with qualitative student interviews, we provide a novel empirical study of course consideration as an important component of course selection. Clickstream logs from a course exploration platform used by most undergraduates at the case university reveal that students consider on average nine courses for enrollment for their first fall term (<2% of available courses) and these courses predict which academic major students declare two years later. Twenty-nine interviews confirm that students experience consideration as complex and reveal variation in consideration strategies that may influence how consideration unfolds. Consideration presents a promising site for intervention in problems of equity, career funneling, and college completion.


The use of dense tungsten carbide cobalt coatings is wide spread in the oil and gas industry and particularly in the prevention of wear. However, their poor mechanical strength under harsh environmental conditions (including corrosion effects) can limit the coating functionality. In the present study, a metallurgical and mechanical/tribological investigation was performed on a composite mixture of three coating materials. These were Tungsten carbide cobalt (WC-12Co) of both, conventional micro sized Diamalloy 2004 and superfine InfralloyTM S7412 nanostructured WC-12Co, were blended with Diamalloy 1005 (Inconel-625: Nickel Chrome based alloy) to produce erosive/corrosive resistant coatings. These coatings were deposited by a HVOF thermal spray process onto carbon steel 4041 substrates typically used in oil/gas industry components.
The metallurgical structure of the powders and coating surface morphology were investigated using SEM, EDS and XRD. The SEM and EDS results obtained show that coating mix P.S.4 (which contained 75% of nanostructured WC-12Co and 25% Diamalloy 1005) was the optimal coating microstructure amongst all of the blends. Its splats had a uniform cemented shape, supported by a highly dense coating microstructure with enhanced mechanical splat adhesion. Additionally, the fully melted particles within this mix provided lower viscosity of the matrix liquid phase and higher splat impact by the HVOF gun, resulting in high bonding strength at the interface with no presence of delamination occurring at the coating/substrate interface. Such microstructural properties benefit a components ability to protect itself from wear, and erosion-corrosion.
The results of tensile, three point bending, fatigue, dry erosion wear, and erosion-corrosion again showed coating mix (P.S.4) to be the most superior coating amongst all of the blends. Additionally, the relationship between the various compositions of coating materials and the resulting coating mechanical properties were analysed through the development of process models using Statease Design Expert design of experiments (DOE). The result achievements demonstrated a reduction in maintenance cost and time experienced by the oil/gas industry; to eliminate shut-down cost for machines and the replacement of parts during operation. This HVOF coating (P.S.4) however could also suit many applications other than oil and gas based on the results found. However, P.S.4 would suit other in many engineering sectors subjected to erosion/corrosion.


This case report describes the orthodontic treatment with autotransplantation and bone grafting of the lost maxillary alveolus for a patient injured in a traffic accident. This patient had a severe skeletal Class III relationship because of the loss of six maxillary teeth and the adjacent alveolar bone. Autotransplantation of mandibular first premolars and bone grafting of the deficient alveolus were carried out to improve the occlusion and the profile. After orthodontic treatment, the transplanted premolars were reshaped and restored with composite as central incisors. Good occlusion and cosmetic improvement were obtained. Orthodontic treatment is useful for occlusal reconstruction after a traumatic injury, and autotransplantation is an effective option for these patients.


Report presents the results of a flight investigation conducted on a typical high-wing personal-owner airplane to determine the effect of control centering springs on apparent spiral stability. Apparent spiral stability is the term used to describe the spiraling tendencies of an airplane in uncontrolled flight as affected both by the true spiral stability of the perfectly trimmed airplane and by out-of-trim control settings. Centering springs were used in both the aileron and rudder control systems to provide both a positive centering action and a means of trimming the airplane. The springs were preloaded so that when they were moved through neutral they produced a nonlinear force gradient sufficient to overcome the friction in the control surface at the proper setting for trim. The ailerons and rudder control surfaces did not have trim tabs that could be adjusted in flight.


Synthesis of S-doped activated carbon with a well-developed porous structure and enhanced catalytic activity has been extensively investigated because of its great potential applications in various fields. Here, we report a facile one-pot thermal process for the preparation of in situ S-doped activated carbon by using a potential waste material (poly(phenylene sulphide) (PPS)) as the precursor, and KOH as the activator for the adsorptive and oxidative removal of aqueous organics. Experimental results demonstrated that the as-prepared sample treated at 800 °C (S-AC-800) exhibited both strong adsorption ability and enhanced persulfate (PS) activity for the removal of phenols. The effect of adsorption on oxidation was illustrated by investigating the removal of different phenol organics in their individual solutions and mixture solution. It was suggested that a higher adsorption capacity led to a more rapid degradation process. In the process, the adsorbed organics were preferentially in situ degraded, which in turn accelerated the adsorption, and then the adsorption and oxidation synergistically promoted the efficient removal of organics. Quenching experiments demonstrated that the activation of PS mainly proceeded through both surface-bound radical and non-radical pathways. The effects of several operating parameters as well as the influences of various inorganic anions, and background organic matter in water on organic removal were investigated in detail. In addition, the stability of S-AC-800 and its deactivation reason were also studied. It is expected that this work could not only provide a promising way to utilize PPS waste, but also provide a facile, economical and effective method for the future development of more efficient sulfur-doped activated carbons for wastewater treatment.


A CMOS phase-locked loop (PLL) which synthesizes frequencies between 6.336 and 8.976 GHz in steps of 528 MHz and settles in approximately 150 ns is presented. The proposed PLL can be employed as a building block for a frequency synthesizer which generates a seven-band hopping carrier for multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) ultrawideband (UWB) radio. To achieve fast loop settling, integer-N architecture that operates with 528-MHz reference frequency is implemented and a wideband active-loop filter is integrated. An improved phase-frequency detector (PFD) is proposed for faster loop settling. To reduce reference sidebands, a feedback circuit using replica bias is implemented in the charge pump. I/Q carriers are generated by two cross-coupled LC VCOs. The output current of the charge pump is controlled to compensate for the VCO gain nonlinearity and a programmable frequency divider (12/spl les/N/spl les/17) that reliably operates at 9 GHz is designed. Fabricated in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, the PLL consumes 32 mA from a 1.8-V supply and achieves phase noise of -109.6dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and spurs of -52 dBc.


The activities of the three known DNA polymerases-alpha, beta-, and -gamma were determined in rat brain neurons, cardiac muscle and spleen, and were correlated with the rate of cell proliferation during perinatal development. In neurons and cardiac muscle, which stop dividing before birth, DNA polymerase-alpha activity drops sharply from a high level with the approach of term and disappears at approximately two weeks postnatal age. In contrast, alpha-polymerase activity is almost absent in spleen during late gestation, when the rate of cell division is low, and increases abruptly after birth with the sudden onset of cell proliferation. These data give further evidence for an involvement of DNA polymerase-alpha in DNA replication. DNA polymerase-beta and -gamma activities show essentially no correlation with the rate of cell division. Thus, these enzymes are probably responsible for repair type processes rather than for DNA replecation.


The construction sector in the United Kingdom is dominated by small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) which have less than 250 employees and usually do not have research capacities to develop a range of low carbon innovations applicable in the construction sector. Various European and national funding programmes have addressed this problem by providing funding for research collaboration between universities and SMEs. The paper provides a selection of the outputs of academic/industry research, undertaken by seven Scottish universities through the project CIC Start Online from September 2009 until February 2013, related to low carbon planning, building design, technologies, construction, refurbishment and performance. The studies either contributed to the further development of existing products or processes, or tested new products or processes, often developed for a specific project with a potential for application in future projects. Online dissemination of the project outcomes has assisted in attracting membership across Scotland, the United Kingdom and internationally. Along with the low carbon building products and technologies, new low carbon infrastructure is being planned and developed in order to provide connections and services for energy generation from renewables, energy storage and decentralised distribution, water management (harvesting, saving and reuse), waste management (reduction, reuse and to-energy), transport (electric vehicles, cycling and walking) and information communication technology (ICT) for monitoring and managing infrastructure systems. The second part of the paper outlines how innovations for integration of sustainable infrastructure into the existing built environment will be supported through the follow-on joint project of nine Scottish universities, named Mainstreaming Innovation.


Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common following abdominal aortic surgery. NGAL might be useful in the early diagnosis of AKI since it responds rapidly to ischaemic damage. Methods: Twenty patients undergoing elective infrarenal aortic surgery. U-NGAL was measured before surgery and 24, 48 and 72 hours postoperatively. Results: No significant rise in U-NGAL was seen in patients without AKI at any time. All patients who developed dialysis- dependent AKI had a significant increase in U-NGAL. Conclusion: U-NGAL did not increase solely in response to the surgical trauma. U-NGAL may be a useful biomarker for AKI following abdominal aortic surgery.


School-based bullying is a serious health issue among adolescents world wide. We identify several differences in microblogs of school-based bullying between Twitter (mostly representing the USA) and Weibo (mostly representing China). First, we see a smaller fraction of victim authors in Weibo than in Twitter. We hypothesize that this may be due to Asian culture's emphasis on saving face where it is more of a taboo to be a victim or label someone a victim. Second, we see different temporal dynamics of school bullying posts due to differences in holidays and length of school days. Finally, bullying posts from Weibo contain more mentions of family than those from Twitter. This may be due to the greater emphasis on family in Asian cultures.


Large old trees are critical organisms and ecological structures in forests, woodlands, savannas, and agricultural and urban environments. They play many essential ecological roles ranging from the storage of large amounts of carbon to the provision of key habitats for wildlife. Some of these roles cannot be replaced by other structures. Large old trees are disproportionately vulnerable to loss in many ecosystems worldwide as a result of accelerated rates of mortality, impaired recruitment, or both. Drivers of loss, such as the combined impacts of fire and browsing by domestic or native herbivores, chemical spray drift in agricultural environments, and postdisturbance salvage logging, are often unique to large old trees but also represent ecosystem‐specific threats. Here, we argue that new policies and practices are urgently needed to conserve existing large old trees and restore ecologically effective and viable populations of such trees by managing trees and forests on much longer time scales than is currently practiced, and by protecting places where they are most likely to develop. Without these steps, large old trees will vanish from many ecosystems, and associated biota and ecosystem functions will be severely diminished or lost.


The initiation of streamers prior to a lightning strike can be reportedly inhibited by glow corona discharges generated from tall objects. In contrast to previous studies based on a simplified one-dimensional model of glow corona, a two-dimensional evaluation of the corona ion drift from tall objects is used here to analyse this effect quantitatively. Proper estimates for the corona space charge distribution generated during both the charging process of a thundercloud and the descent of the downward stepped leader are thus calculated. It is found that the shielding effect of the corona space charge on the streamer inception is not as severe as previously reported. Estimations of the effective height of the downward leader tip at which streamer inception takes place are presented and discussed for lightning rods and dissipation array systems.


High index-contrast nanophotonic devices are key components for future board-to-board and chip-to-chip optical interconnects: The strong confinement of light enables dense integration, and nonlinear effects can be exploited at low power levels. Cheap large-scale production is possible by using highly parallel microfabrication techniques, and semiconductor-based nanophotonic devices can be integrated together with electronic circuitry on a common chip. Particularly intense research is carried out to realise optical devices on silicon substrates, using mature complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication techniques.
This book discusses the modelling, fabrication and characterization of linear and nonlinear nanophotonic devices. Roughness-related scattering loss in high index-contrast waveguides is investigated both theoretically and experimentally, and methods of loss reduction are developed. Novel silicon-based devices for electro-optic modulation and for all-optical signal processing are presented. Nonlinear dynamics in active quantum-dot devices are studied, and resonant field enhancement is exploited to improve the efficiency of nonlinear interaction.


Stress coping theories suggest that the effectiveness of coping depends on the level of stress experienced. Existing research shows that efforts to cope with high levels of peer victimization may not prevent subsequent peer victimization. Additionally, associations between coping and peer victimization often differ between boys and girls. The present study included 242 participants (51% girls; 34% Black, 65% White; Mage = 15.75 years). Adolescents reported on coping with peer stress at age 16 and on overt and relational peer victimization at ages 16 and 17. Greater use of primary control engaged coping (e.g., problem-solving) was associated positively with overt peer victimization for boys with higher initial overt victimization. Primary control coping was also associated positively with relational victimization regardless of gender or initial relational peer victimization. Secondary control coping (e.g., cognitive distancing) was associated negatively with overt peer victimization. Secondary control coping was also associated negatively with relational victimization for boys. Greater use of disengaged coping (e.g., avoidance) was associated positively with overt and relational peer victimization for girls with higher initial victimization. Gender differences and the context and level of stress should be considered in future research and interventions related to coping with peer stress.


This paper presents a novel filtering method for speed measurements to improve the low-speed performance of the direct-drive permanent magnet traction machines for elevators. Based on the theory of nonlinear tracking differentiator (NTD), this method, which can act as a high performance filter of a raw speed signal, obtains a more accurate speed feedback signal when applying a low-resolution encoder. In addition, it can relieve the interference caused by the position derivative for speed sampling. By analyzing the frequency response of the NTD, the influence of its parameters on the performance of the speed filtering is investigated. Compared with different types of low-pass filters, the proposed method shows a shorter time delay and a stronger ability in terms of noise suppression when the parameters are selected carefully. In addition, when using the measured speed signal through a nonlinear tracking differentiator as the feedback of the system, the motor runs more steadily at low speeds. As a result, the riding comfort of a direct-drive elevator can be improved. The feasibility of the proposed strategy was verified on an 11.7kW elevator traction machine using a commercial inverter.


Since biochemical studies have shown that flavonoids such as beta-hydroxyethylrutosides (HR) protect against the damage to collagen induced by lathyrogens in adult rats, this compound was given to pregnant hamsters in order to determine its effects on the teratogenicity induced by beta-aminopropionitrile (beta APN). A dose of 2,500 mg/kg of beta APN alone given by gavage on day 11 produced a high frequency (69.5%) of skeletal anomalies in the offspring of hamsters. Administration of HR immediately following beta APN to pregnant animals resulted in a significantly decreased teratogenic response (P less than 0.05). These data provide evidence to support the view that the primary mechanism for the beta APN-induced skeletal dysmorphogenesis is the inhibition of cross linking during the maturation of collagen fibers.


Compared to manual Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) for inspection of engineering components, automated robotic deployment of the same NDT techniques offers an increase in accuracy, precision and speed of inspection while reducing production time and associated labour costs. Traditionally, the robot tool path is either taught or programmed manually. Automation of NDT tool path generation, as presented in this paper, offers further significant time reduction, and an increase in the flexibility of inspection planning compared to manual robot teaching and programming. Moreover, such a solution helps to maintain a controlled probe orientation with respect to the scanned surface, and thus which can dramatically reducing lift-off noise. In this work we present the reverse engineering of complex shape test-pieces which have no CAD documentation, and the computer-aided tool scan path generation of such test-pieces as deployed by means of six-axis KUKA robotic arms. Both the use of commercial software and a custom MATLAB toolbox are explored. The tool-paths generated by commercial software are used for robotic scanning of a titanium fan blade by means of Swept Frequency Eddy Current (SFEC) method. Investigations for the future potential for integrating robotic NDT and in-line metrology are also presented.


Best known as the man who organized the Great March on Washington in 1963, Bayard Rustin was a vital force in the civil rights movement from the 1940s through the 1980s. Rustins's activism embraced the wide range of crucial issues of his time: communism, international pacifism, and race relations. Rustin's long activist career began with his association with A. Phillip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Then, as a member of A. J. Muste's Fellowship of Reconciliation, he participated in the "Journey of Reconciliation" (an early version of the "Freedom Rides" of 1961). He was a close associate of Martin Luther King in Montgomery and Atlanta and rose to prominence as organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin played a key role in applying nonviolent direct action to American race relations while rejecting the separatism of movements like Black Power in the 1960s, even at the risk of his being marginalized by the younger generation of civil rights activists. In his later years he tried to hold the civil rights coalition together and to fight for the economic changes he thought were necessary to decrease racism. Daniel Levine has written the first scholarly biography that examines Rustin's public as well as private persona in light of his struggles as a gay black man and as an activist who followed his own principles and convictions. The result is a rich portrait of a complex, indomitable advocate for justice in American society."


In this paper we wish to examine the phenomenon of Y2K as an instance of information systems failure. Taking this particular stance on the issue leads we feel to a number of interesting areas that demand further investigation. We first review the current phenomenon of Y2K and discuss some of the relevant work in the area of IS failure. The topic of IS failure has tended to concentrate on issues of success or failure in relation to one specific IS project. We highlight a number of ways in which Y2K can be characterised as a particularly unique and interesting instance of IS failure. In one sense Y2K can be characterised merely as a technological failure and the responses to it merely of a technical kind. However Y2K, and the responses taken to it are of interest also on the organisational, societal, and economic level. It is therefore a phenomenon of primary concern to the IS academic. We raise a number of issues posed by our examination of Y2K that demand further investigation by IS academics. Y2K and the panic that it has generated can be seen as a clear demonstration of the degree to which IS/IT is closely embedded within modern organisations. However, there is preliminary evidence that Y2K has had an effect on the relationship between the IS/IT function and organisations. We particularly raise questions of its effect on IS strategy and planning, outsourcing and the IS development portfolio of organisations.


Internet of Things (IoT) is based on data collection, where billions of sensors sample the real world; in other words, the IoT includes a giant distributed measurement system (DMS). A question still requiring an answer is: Are the IoT technologies usable to enhance traditional measurement systems, since they have been developed for a very similar objective? In this paper, the use of a long-range (LoRa) technology, originally developed for IoT, is investigated with the aim of implementing DMSs. After the conclusion that LoRa and LoRa wide area network architectures show a good match with measurement systems, this paper focuses on the characterization of time-related performance indicators that are important for distributed systems. The experimental results show the capability of low-cost transceiver to schedule the transmission of frames with a standard uncertainty less than  $3~\mu \text{s}$ ; and an acceptable long-term clock stability (Allan Deviation) of commercial available devices (nodes and packet forwarders) for application such as smart metering, smart building, and process industry.


Abstract Carbonado diamonds from the Central African Republic were investigated using spectroscopic observations and C-isotopic analysis. Based on photoluminescence (PL) spectra, carbonado samples were classified into two groups: Group-A, which exhibits an intense PL band at 504 nm; and Group- B, which exhibits PL bands at 504, 575, and 638 nm at room temperature. PL spectra measured at 120 K gave well-resolved side-band structures of 504 nm bands. Consequently, the 504 nm band of Group-A can be assigned to the 3H center attributable to self interstitials in diamond, whereas the 504 nm band from Group-B can be assigned to the H3 center attributable to a vacancy (□) trapped at nearest-neighbor substitutional nitrogen (N) pairs. The PL band at 575 nm, which is attributable to neutral N-□ pairs, is known to increase its width with increasing residual stress in diamond aggregates. The average FWHM of the 575 nm band and the standard deviations were 3.80 and 0.54 nm for Group-A carbonado, and 2.80 and 0.38 nm for Group-B carbonado. These values suggest that Group-A carbonado samples have higher residual stress than the Group-B samples. The presence of an H3 center and the lower residual stress in Group-B carbonado both suggest that they originated from higher temperatures compared to Group-A. Radiation halos were observed in cathodoluminescence (CL) images of both Group-A and Group-B samples. The CL halos are traces of radiation damage from radioactive nuclides. The texture of the haloes suggests that the radiation damage was a secondary event after formation of the carbonado diamonds. The average C-isotopic composition of Group-A is -23.6 ± 0.52. in δ13CPDB and that of Group-B is -26.3 ± 0.65‰. Group-A carbonado was enriched systematically in 13C compared with Group-B carbonado. Isotopic fractionation might occur as a result of the different thermal history of carbonado.


This paper maps the extent and causes of farmer exit from contract farming arrangements in southern India using survey data for five schemes: cotton, gherkins, papaya, marigold, and broiler chickens. The paper finds that farmer attrition is quite widespread and that poorer farmers from marginalized social groups are more likely to exit these arrangements. While this is an important policy concern, the study also distinguishes between voluntary exit, where the farmer opts out, versus involuntary exit, where the contracting firm drops the farmer as a supplier because of constraints in delivering quality produce, or the firm's interaction with the farmer forces the farmer out. The paper also highlights the episodic nature of farmer participation, wherein farmers leverage opportunities to contract occasionally as part of a dynamic portfolio of alternatives. The paper emphasizes that while involuntary exclusion is of serious concern, voluntary exit and episodic participation are perhaps less important issues f...


The emblematic olive grove covers 17% of the South Spain territory. Last years, intensive farming has been developed around its exploitation. This causes many environmental and social problems, ecological interactions and environmental variables are modified, accentuating the climate change effects. The aim of this work is optimize the layout to allow a sustainable agricultural production, adapting the exploitation to the climate change and minimizing alterations over environmental variables. Thus, interaction between the Surface Boundary Layer (SBL) and olive groves has been analyzed experimentally. Wind tunnel reduced-scale tests were carried out for different setups: grid with homogeneous tree models, over a flat surface and over a hill, and simulating different vegetation covers. The same tests were replicated with staggered pattern and heterogeneous tree models. Wind velocity and turbulence kinetic energy profiles were obtained using Hot Wire Anemometry, taking measurements between models and behind them. It has been proved that olive grove spatial layout and the presence or absence of vegetation cover modify the SBL dynamics. Consequently, not only fundamental environmental variables are altered, for example, the moisture flux and the evapotranspiration, but also important variables for human health are modified, as pollen flow dispersion to urban areas.Keywords: Olive grove, environmental management, sustainability, wind tunnel


Automated image analysis of histopathology specimens could potentially provide support for early detection and improved characterization of breast cancer. Automated segmentation of the cells comprising imaged tissue microarrays (TMAs) is a prerequisite for any subsequent quantitative analysis. Unfortunately, crowding and overlapping of cells present significant challenges for most traditional segmentation algorithms. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm that can reliably separate touching cells in hematoxylin-stained breast TMA specimens that have been acquired using a standard RGB camera. The algorithm is composed of two steps. It begins with a fast, reliable object center localization approach that utilizes single-path voting followed by mean-shift clustering. Next, the contour of each cell is obtained using a level set algorithm based on an interactive model. We compared the experimental results with those reported in the most current literature. Finally, performance was evaluated by comparing the pixel-wise accuracy provided by human experts with that produced by the new automated segmentation algorithm. The method was systematically tested on 234 image patches exhibiting dense overlap and containing more than 2200 cells. It was also tested on whole slide images including blood smears and TMAs containing thousands of cells. Since the voting step of the seed detection algorithm is well suited for parallelization, a parallel version of the algorithm was implemented using graphic processing units (GPU) that resulted in significant speedup over the C/C++ implementation.


This short book chapter explores the determinants of constitutional specificity. Treating constitutional texts as coordination devices, it predicts that demand for specificity will increase as a function of audience heterogeneity, political uncertainty, and other factors. It shows that constitutions are getting longer and more detailed over time, and that constitutions in common law countries are longer than those in civil law countries, though not necessarily any clearer.


While much of the focus around Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs) has been given to those in galaxy groups and clusters, relatively little is known about them in less-dense environments. These isolated UDGs provide fundamental insights into UDG formation because environmentally driven evolution and survivability play less of a role in determining their physical and observable properties. We have recently conducted a statistical analysis of UDGs in the field using a new catalogue of sources detected in the deep Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) and Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) optical imaging surveys. Using an empirical model to assess our contamination from interloping sources, we show that a scenario in which cluster-like quiescent UDGs occupy a large fraction of the field UDG population is unlikely, with most being significantly bluer and some showing signs of localised star formation. We estimate an upper-limit on the total field abundance of UDGs of 8$\pm$3$\times10^{-3}$cMpc$^{-3}$ within our selection range. The mass formation efficiency of UDGs implied by this upper-limit is similar to what is measured in groups and clusters, meaning that secular formation channels may significantly contribute to the overall UDG population.


Total joint arthroplasty can be associated with major blood loss and require subsequent blood transfusions for postoperative anemia. Measures to effectively and safely decrease blood loss and reduce the need for blood transfusions would help improve patient safety and lower health care costs. A possible pharmacological option to reduce surgical blood loss in total joint arthroplasty is the use of tranexamic acid. Abundant literature has shown that intravenous and/or topical administration of tranexamic acid is effective in reducing blood loss and blood transfusions, with no increased risk of venous thromboembolic events or other complications.


The classic manifestations of a deficiency of vitamin A in man, xerophthalmia and keratomalacia, have until recently been recognized as the only external lesions of this nutritional disorder. The failure of nutrition underlying such conditions is due either to an inadequate amount of the vitamin in the diet or to disease or functional derangements interfering with the utilization of this substance by the body. The relationship of the ocular changes to a deficiency of vitamin A has been established by frequent clinical and experimental observations in man and in laboratory animals. The specific effect of a diet inadequate only in vitamin A is a keratinizing metaplasia of epithelium in many regions of the body, which is thought to be a phenomenon of repair stimulated by atrophy of the original epithelium. The replacement of normal epithelium by stratified keratinizing epithelium, similar to that of the normal epidermis, produces extensive visceral


The attachment to and penetration of endothelial cells in the pons and midbrain (especially the substantia nigra) regions of the brains of BALB/c mice by log-phase Nocardia asteroides GUH-2 cells were determined by both scanning and transmission electron microscopic analysis. Within 15 min after exposure, the nocardiae attached to the surface of the endothelial cell membrane. This attachment occurred primarily at the growing tip of the nocardial filament, and the outermost layer of the nocardial cell wall had regions (electron-dense areas) that bound firmly to the cytoplasmic membrane of the host cell. There appeared to be specificity for this binding localized within the capillaries and arterioles because some regions had large numbers of bacteria bound, whereas adjacent areas had no bacterial cells. Nocardial filaments that attached by the apex induced a cuplike deformation of the endothelial cell membrane. This was followed by a rapid penetration of the endothelial cell so that within 25 min many of the bacteria were internalized within the host cell. These internalized bacteria remained within vesicles, and there was no ultrastructural evidence of damage to the nocardial cell during this process. Heat-killed GUH-2 cells still attached to endothelial surfaces (at a reduced frequency), but they did not penetrate into the endothelial cell. These data suggest that brain-invasive nocardiae possess both an adhesin for attachment to the membrane of endothelial cells and an invasion factor that promotes nocardial penetration of these cells.


The bilingual (Aramaic-Hebrew) concordance to the Targum of the Prophets is the product of an international project based in the Theological University of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, Kampen (ThUK) and supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). With this publication a major research tool becomes available to those engaged in Biblical and Jewish Studies. For the first time meaningful quotations from the Targum and the Masoretic Hebrew text of the Bible are set out in parallel so that the user of the concordance can study the translation technique of the Targum in much greater detail than was hitherto possible. For comparative purposes the concordance is published per book of the Prophets. Eventually a complete concordance will become available in electronic form. The concordance makes a wealth of largely unknown material accessible to researchers. The discovery of the presumed-lost Song of the Lamb, referred to in Rev. 15:3, by members of the editorial team vividly illustrates the importance of such a concordance to both Judaic and New Testament studies. The concordance will also be an indispensable tool for the textual criticism and the history of interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. To facilitate consultation on the basis of the Hebrew, every concordance per book contains a Hebrew-Aramaic index. The final volume will contain additions and corrections, a cumulative Hebrew-Aramaic index, as well as an English-Aramaic index.


The main purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the geometry and size of the aggregate, as well as the drying temperature on the compressive strength of the ordinary concrete. To this end, two aggregates with sharp and round corners were prepared in three different aggregate sizes. After preparing concrete samples, the drying operations were carried out in the vicinity of room temperature, cold wind, and hot wind. Next, the linear relationship between the concrete strength and the studied parameters was estimated using Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) method. Finally, the Taguchi Sensitivity Analysis (TSA) and Decision Tree Analysis (DTA) were applied in order to determine the importance of the parameters on the compressive strength of concrete. As a result, it is obtained that the aggregate size has the greatest influence on the compressive strength of the ordinary concrete followed by drying temperature as stated by method TSA and DTA. In addition, the influence percentages reported for each parameter by Taguchi approach and decision tree method are matched. The prediction of the strength obtained by Taguchi method and second-order regression with the experimental data are in a good agreement. It was concluded that the impact of drying temperature on the concrete strength is several times greater than the effect of the aggregate geometry. Finally, the main conclusion of this research is related to the application of cold wind for drying operation, which leads to an increase of the compressive strength by 8.67% and 11.55% for ordinary concrete containing a constant aggregate size of 20 and aggregate geometries of round and sharp corners, respectively.


The winter strawberry (Fragaria ananassa Duch.) industry in subtropical regions is characterized by early-season fruit production, a time when crop value is the highest. This is the case of the northwestern province of Tucuman (27°S), Argentina's largest winter strawberry growing area (2). Collapsed and dying strawberry plants of cv. Camarosa were observed in commercial farms in Tucumán in September 2007 with an incidence of 16%. Crowns and roots of affected plants revealed dark, external and internal browning tissue with several dark, oblong, subepidermal sclerotia. Pieces of necrotic crowns and roots disinfested with 0.6% chloride for 30 s were placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA). After 4 days of incubation at 25°C with constant fluorescent lighting, dark cultures with numerous, dark, oblong sclerotia immersed in the isolation medium were observed. Sclerotia size ranged from 70 to 120 μm in 7-day-old cultures. The isolated fungus was identified as Macrophomina phaseolina (3). Ostiolate pycnidia bearing ellipsoidal, hyaline conidia were rarely observed on the affected host tissue (1). Pathogenicity tests were performed on micropropagated nursery plants grown in sterile potting soil under greenhouse conditions for 3 months. Single-sclerotia culture was grown in PDA at 25°C for 4 days. Then, sterile wooden toothpicks were placed on the medium for seven additional days to allow fungal colonization. Prior to use, toothpicks were autoclaved twice in deionized water and once in V8 juice (4). Four plants of Camarosa, Camino Real, Pajaro, and Chandler cultivars were inoculated by inserting a colonized toothpick into the crown. Sterile toothpicks were inserted into crowns of control plants. All plants were incubated under greenhouse conditions. The experimental setting was a randomized complete design with two replicates per cultivar. Inoculated plants developed wilting in one or more leaves 6 days after inoculation. Most of the inoculated plants (90%) collapsed or died within 2 weeks, while control plants remained healthy during the observation period. The reisolated fungus from affected plants was morphologically and culturally identical to the inoculated isolates. M. phaseolina has been reported in the province of Santa Fe (~32°S) where winters are humid and cold (1), contrasting with Tucumán winters, which are dry and cold, both highly conducive conditions for the development of the disease. To our knowledge, this is the first report of M. phaseolina, an emerging pathogen, considered as a potential threat for northwestern Argentina's strawberry industry, which is recognized as a major source of employment and income in this region. References: (1) C. J. N. Carrera. Ficha Fitopatológica 000867 INTA IMIZA Castelar Bs.As., 1972. (2) D. S. Kirschbaum and J. F. Hancock. HortScience 35:807, 2000. (3) J. Maas. Page 26 in: Compendium of Strawberry Diseases. 2nd ed. J. L. Maas, ed. The American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, MN, 1998. (4) J. Mertely et al. Plant Dis. 89:434, 2005.


The problem of empty containers is not unique to Malaysia but also a major problem that is faced by other countries around the world. An effective strategy of managing empty containers not only enable financial savings, but it also has the added advantage of contributing to the well being of the environment. Therefore, several strategies have been identified and implemented to reduce or minimize the environmental impact of moving around empty containers. The practice of industry in Europe in managing the container movement is based largely on two strategies called 'Depot Direct' and 'Street Turn'. These strategies are looked upon as suitable tools for managing container's entire - journey when there is a haulage by prime movers. However in Malaysia, logistics practitioners have still largely not implemented a similar strategy in the latter that forms the foundation of green logistics thus helping to reduce carbon emissions in Malaysia. Normally, road haulage companies in Malaysia use the 'Depot Direct' strategy and from the general observation this strategy is not an environmental friendly process as it entails unnecessary carbon emissions. This author seeks to determine whether there is a cost saving and environmental benefits if there is implementation of a new strategy like 'Street Turn' in Malaysia for container haulage operations. The effectiveness of 'Street Turn' strategy will be measured systematically looking at the cost of operation gathering after implementation and simple estimation of percentage carbon emission reduction


The vision of ubiquitous computing requires the development of devices and technologies, which can be pervasive without being intrusive. The basic components of such a smart environment will be small nodes with sensing and wireless communications capabilities, able to organize flexibly into a network for data collection and delivery. The constant improvements in digital circuit technology, has made the deployment of such small, inexpensive, low-power, distributed devices, which are capable of information gathering, processing, and communication in miniature packaging, a reality. Realizing such a network presents very significant challenges, especially at the protocol and software level. Major steps forward are required in the field of communications protocol, data processing, and application support. Although sensor nodes will be equipped with a power supply (battery) and embedded processor that makes them autonomous and self-aware, their functionality and capabilities will be very limited. The resource limitations of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), especially in terms of energy, require novel and collaborative approach for the wireless communication. Therefore, collaboration between nodes is essential to deliver smart services in a ubiquitous setting. Current research in this area generally assumes a rather static network, leading to a strong performance degradation in a dynamic environment. In this thesis we investigate new algorithms for routing in dynamic wireless environment and evaluate their feasibility through experimentation. These algorithms will be key for building self-organizing and collaborative sensor networks that show emergent behavior and can operate in a challenging environment where nodes move, fail and energy is a scarce resource. We develop the technology needed for building self-organizing and collaborative sensor networks using reconfigurable smart sensor nodes, which are self-aware, self-reconfigurable and autonomous. This technology will enable the creation of a new generation of sensors, which can effectively network together so as to provide a flexible platform for the support of a large variety of mobile sensor network applications. In this thesis, we address the dynamics of sink nodes, sensor nodes and event in the routing of wireless sensor networks, while maintaining high reliability and low energy consumption. The hypothesis is that this requires different routing protocols and approaches. The varying application scenarios of wireless sensor networks require different routing protocols and approaches as well. This thesis has three major contributions to the routing in dynamic wireless sensor networks. Firstly, a combination between a new multipath on-Demand Routing protocol and a data-splitting scheme which results in an efficient solution for high reliability and low traffic. Secondly, a cross-layered approach with a self-organizing medium access control protocol and a tightly integrated source routing protocol is designed for high mobility sensor networks. Finally, a data-centric approach based on cost estimation is designed to disseminate aggregated data from data source to destination with high efficiency.


A coherent blueschist terrane near Aksu, northwestern China, is unconformably overlain by unmetamorphosed sedimentary rocks of Sinian age (ca. 600-800 Ma). The pre-Sinian metamorphic rocks, termed the Aksu Group, have maintained stratal continuity and were derived from shale, sandstone, basaltic volcanic rocks, and minor pelagic sediments. They have undergone multistage deformation and transitional blueschist-greenschist facies metamorphism, and are represented by strongly foliated chlorite-stilpnomelane-graphite schist, stilpnomelane-phengite psammitic schist, greenschist, blueschist, and minor quartzite, metachert, and metamorphosed ironstone. Metamorphic minerals present in blueschists include crossitic amphibole, epidote, chlorite, albite, quartz, and actinolite. Mineral parageneses and composition of sodic amphibole suggest blueschist facies recrystallization at about 4 to 6 kbar and about 300-400 °C. Post-tectonic alkali diabase dikes cut the Aksu Group. The basal conglomerate of the overlying Sinian to Eocambrian sedimentary succession contains clasts of both the metamorphic and dike rocks, clearly demonstrating that conditions required for blueschist facies metamorphism were attained at least 800 m.y. ago.


Printmaking within the applied arts is an extremely diverse practice that can
extend the concept of what a print can be. Rather than the dissemination of
published images and text, in this context printed information is transformed
into objects and materials, ceramics, textiles, tableware, clothing. Prints such
as these are not ʻreproduction' they are ʻproduction'.Process is crucial to both
printmaking and the applied arts and the determining aspect of production
plays a vital part in defining the qualities of a work such as print-decorated
ceramic objects. To work with a printmaking process in this sector requires
interpretation, predictive foresight and a degree of ʻthinking-through-making'
to transpose an image into the physical world of materials and objects.
Printmaking, specifically within the ceramic discipline, is often plagued by
issues of integrity brought about by problems relating to ʻdivision', these
issues include: -

- The physical divisions between image and object
- The divided tasks in production that can disrupt thinking and making
- A division of perceptions surrounding the surface/form relationship that
considers the surface as supplementary or artificial
Commercial production has developed approaches and techniques to
integrate surface and form, combat these negative perceptions and raise the
value of this type of work. These methods are not, however, always
appropriate or accessible to individual ceramist-printmakers working in the
studio. How can this sector overcome these negative factors and adopt
strategies that invest some value of visual integrity within production?
The research project answers this question in two ways: A low-tech,
accessible method was developed in the studio with the aim to offer a new
practical approach that physically integrates complex ceramic forms with the
printed image. The aim was to facilitate this unity at an early ʻraw-clay' stage,
where the combined manipulation of surface and form can take place
together, resulting in an aesthetic that has ʻvisual integrity'. The second aim of
the research has been to identify the inherent qualities of working and thinking
ʻwithin' the language of ceramics and print materials and processes.
ʻSyntactic' qualities and factors have been determined through research into
historical innovations and the observation of current commercial practice in
the field of screenprinting and screenprinted ceramics. This has helped to
establish approaches to overcome negative factors relating to the perception
of division, and invest integrity in the work through principled approaches to
practice.

The project adopts a methodology of ʻthinking-through-making' where iterative
studio experimentation is undertaken through tacit understanding, gained from
experiential knowledge combined with research of contemporary and
historical precedents. This approach is reflected upon and informed by writers
who discuss working within the inherent language of printmaking.
The research contributes to the advancement of knowledge through the
development of a new versatile technique that can be easily accessed by
ceramists and printmakers who wish to produce integrated ceramics and print
works. This contributes to the advancement of technology, perception and
knowledge in the field of printed ceramic objects. My approach and the
development of a value system also offers a tool to further the critical


The purpose of this paper is to compare the two auction techniques (discriminatory and uniform-price auctions) most commonly used for the sale of securities. Literature tends to analyze methods from the aspect of the expected revenue from the auction. Theoretical models arrive at different rankings for expected revenue; however, they do reveal the relationship between the bids submitted and the auction technique. These results are confirmed both by 'laboratory' experiments and the empirical evidence of real-world auctions. The latter may also provide a robust answer to the question of expected revenue; the uniform-price format coming out as the more beneficial for the Treasury. Still, at present the global majority of issuers of government bonds use the discriminatory-price format and central bank instruments also tend to be sold in this format. This is because issuers may have considerations other than expected revenue.


The intelligent building is supposed to provide the environment and means for an optimal
utilization of the building, according to its designation. This extended function of a building can
be achieved only by means of an extensive use of building service systems, such as HVAC,
electric power, communication, safety and security, transportation, sanitation, etc. Building
intelligence is not related to the sophistication of service systems in a building, but rather to the
integration among the various service systems, and between the systems and the building
structure. Systems' integration can be accomplished through teamwork planning of the building,
starting at the initial design stages of the building. This paper examines some existing buildings
claimed to be "intelligent", according to their level of systems' integration. Intelligent buildings
respond to the needs of occupants and society, promoting the well-being of those living and
working in them and providing value through increasing staff productivity and reducing
operational costs. Intelligent Buildings considers cultural changes affecting the way people live
and work, the importance of an integrated approach to design and management and the benefits
technological developments can bring in developing sustainable buildings that meet users' needs.


We report the first observations of E region neutral wind fields and their interaction with auroral arcs at mesoscale spatial resolution during geomagnetically quiet conditions at Mawson, Antarctica. This was achieved by using a scanning Doppler imager, which can observe thermospheric neutral line-of-sight winds and temperatures simultaneously over a wide field of view. In two cases, the background E region wind field was perpendicular to an auroral arc, which when it appeared caused the wind direction within ∼50 km of the arc to rotate parallel along the arc, reverting to the background flow direction when the arc disappeared. This was observed under both westward and eastward plasma convection. The wind rotations occurred within 7–16 min. In one case, as an auroral arc propagated from the horizon toward the local zenith, the background E region wind field became significantly weaker but remained unaffected where the arc had not passed through. We demonstrate through modeling that these effects cannot be explained by height changes in the emission layer. The most likely explanation seems to be the greatly enhanced ion drag associated with the increased plasma density and localized ionospheric electric field associated with auroral arcs. In all cases, the F region neutral wind appeared less affected by the auroral arc, although its presence is clear in the data.


To study the disposition of the enantiomers of the calcium channel blocker amlodipine in human plasma, an enantioselective high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) assay was developed. Several HPLC techniques such as chiral ion-pair forming, chiral derivatisation and direct separation on chiral columns were evaluated. A robust assay withhigh sensitivity for amlodipine's enantiomers, suitable for large scale analysis of plasma samples, was established by combining enantiomeric separation on Chiral-AGP i.e., an alfa1 acid glycoprotein material, with achiral HPLC using electrochemical detection, in a coupledcolumn system. The enantiomeric separation on the AGP material was evaluated andoptimised by performing chemometric i.e., multivariate analysis. Enantioselective pharmacokinetics, in healthy human subjects, after a single oral dose of amlodipine (Norvasc®) was shown. The pharmacologically active (S)-enantiomer was found in higher plasma concentrations than the (R)-enantiomer in all subjects, but the individual SIR ratios ranged from about 50:50 to 70:30. Comparable inter-individual differences in amlodipine concentration SIR ratio was found in patients during long-term treatment with Norvasc®. However, the changes over time, in the individual subjects, were low and were not significantly influenced if the dose was increased. A difference in systemic blood clearance of the two enantiomers is the most likely cause of the observed difference in pharmacokinetic behavior. At present, however, it cannot be discerned whether this is caused by differences in protein-binding or in intrinsic clearance of the unbound drug. Administration together with grapefruit juice was found to increase the amlodipine plasma concentrations in healthy volunteers without markedly change the plasma concentration SIR ratio. A nonstereoselective inhibition of the first-pass metabolism is proposed. Even though the effects seen were small the clinical significance of this food/drug interaction cannot be totally neglected since there are considerable differences seen between individuals.


In order to be fully robust and responsive to a dynamically changing real-world environment, intelligent robots will need to engage in a variety of simultaneous reasoning modalities. In particular, in this paper we consider their needs to i) reason with commonsense knowledge, ii) model their nondeterministic action outcomes and partial observability, and iii) plan toward maximizing long-term rewards. On one hand, Answer Set Programming (ASP) is good at representing and reasoning with commonsense and default knowledge, but is ill-equipped to plan under probabilistic uncertainty. On the other hand, Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes(POMDPs) are strong at planning under uncertainty toward maximizing long-term rewards, but are not designed to incorporate commonsense knowledge and inference. This paper introduces the CORPP algorithm which combines P-log,a probabilistic extension of ASP, with POMDPs to integrate commonsense reasoning with planning under uncertainty.Our approach is fully implemented and tested on a shopping request identification problem both in simulation and on a real robot. Compared with existing approaches using P-log or POMDPs individually, we observe significant improvements in both efficiency and accuracy.


We examined the frequency of domestic violence and verbal altercations relative to the level of domestic conflict using survey data from the United States and Korea. We found evidence that individuals are generally less likely to use violence during an altercation if the antagonist is a family member than if the antagonist is a stranger. People apparently have stronger inhibitions about hitting family members than about hitting strangers, and, as a result, domestic violence is infrequent relative to the level of domestic conflict. In addition, verbal altercations are more likely to occur in conflicts with partners and children than in conflicts involving strangers, suggesting that the relaxation of rules of politeness contributes to the expression of grievances and ultimately the use of violence in these relationships.


This article reports the analysis method of the factors effected bond qualities of fabric composites. The parameters of fabrics and interlinings are analyzed by principal analysis and eight principal components are obtained through this method. The obtained eight components can reflect 96.649% information of all original parameters. For the first principal component, the parameters for which percentage exceeded 70% were all the parameters about interlining, those of which information about fabric were important for the second component, the main parameters of the third principal component the warp flex and the shear ability of the fabric, As to the fourth principal component, the parameters considered were interlining warp extension and interlining weft extension, The fifth component was the shear and weft flex ability of the fabric, The sixth component was the warp shrinkage ability of the interlining, Fabric warp shrinkage was the only parameter of which the percentage exceeded 50% in the seventh component, The fabric warp bending rigidity was the important element for the eighth principal component.


[1] The response of the Indonesian Seas to the monsoonal winds is investigated using a regional ocean model with an emphasis on understanding the mechanisms behind the observed seasonal sea surface temperature (SST) variability. Understanding the seasonal SST variability in the Indonesian Seas is crucial for understanding tropical climate variability since atmospheric deep convection is located directly above these seas. Our model results suggest that the monsoonal winds play a dominant role in creating the spatial SST variability and are responsible for inducing about half of the basin-averaged SST variability. The remaining half is found to be caused by conditions in surface heating, which is brought about by radiation and atmospheric temperature and humidity. The northwesterly wind during Austral summer is roughly uniform over the basin so wind mixing occurs roughly uniformly and no significant spatial SST variability is forced. The southeasterly wind during Austral winter, on the other hand, has a significant spatial variation with a maximum wind speed located in the middle of the basin. This spatial variability causes Ekman upwelling and downwelling in the north and south of the Indonesian Seas, respectively, and establishes a cold SST region in the northeast. The presence of the shallow shelf region in the east is also found critical to the formation of this cold SST event. Without the shelf, lateral advection of warm water from the west will trap the cold SST region to the eastern boundary.


SUMMARY Moment accumulation rate (also referred to as moment deficit rate) is a fundamental quantity for evaluating seismic hazard. The conventional approach for evaluating moment accumulation rate of creeping faults is to invert for the slip distribution from geodetic measurements, although even with perfect data these slip-rate inversions are non-unique. In this study, we show that the slip-rate versus depth inversion is not needed because moment accumulation rate can be estimated directly from surface geodetic data. We propose an integral approach that uses dense geodetic observations from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) to constrain the moment accumulation rate. The moment accumulation rate is related to the integral of the product of the along-strike velocity and the distance from the fault. We demonstrate our methods by studying the Creeping Section of the San Andreas fault observed by GPS and radar interferometry onboard the ERS and ALOS satellites. Along-strike variation of the moment accumulation rate is derived in order to investigate the degree of partial locking of the Creeping Section. The central Creeping Segment has a moment accumulation rate of 0.25–3.1 × 10 15 Nm yr − 1 km − 1 . The upper and lower bounds of the moment accumulation rates are derived based on the statistics of the noise. Our best-fitting model indicates that the central portion of the Creeping Section is accumulating seismic moment at rates that are about 5 per cent to 23 per cent of the fully locked Carrizo segment that will eventually be released seismically. A cumulative moment budget calculation with the historical earthquake catalogue ( M > 5.5) since 1857 shows that the net moment deficit at present is equivalent to a M w 6.3 earthquake.


Prior research indicates a strong relationship between reading motivation and reading performance. However, most studies include predominately White samples, and limited research exists for young students of color. This dissertation attempts to address this gap in the research literature, and advance discussions about closing racial/ethnic and gender achievement gaps. Part one analyzes two large datasets to calculate self-reported reading motivation levels by student subgroup, and estimates predictive models to explore reading motivation's relationship to achievement. Descriptive findings show average reading motivation levels are high among all children including children from in different racial/ethnic and gender subgroups. Predictive results show that the SDQ reading sub-scale (third-grade reading motivation) alone explains between three and five percent of the variance in fifth-grade achievement. However, after controlling for student background characteristics, early reading motivation is not a strong predictor of later achievement, but can still enhance a teacher's understanding of how a student feels about and their perceived competence in reading. In Part two, I develop, pilot, and validate a reading motivation instrument for kindergarten students. Results indicate that it is a reliable instrument that measures two dimensions of reading motivation. However, the scale is not strongly predictive of concurrent reading achievement. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Rebecca A. Maynard


In this paper, we study the problem of privacy information leakage in a smart grid. The privacy risk is assumed to be caused by an unauthorized binary hypothesis testing of the consumer's behaviour based on the smart meter readings of energy supplies from the energy provider. Another energy supplies are produced by an alternative energy source. A controller equipped with an energy storage device manages the energy inflows to satisfy the energy demand of the consumer. We study the optimal energy control strategy which minimizes the asymptotic exponential decay rate of the minimum Type II error probability in the unauthorized hypothesis testing to suppress the privacy risk. Our study shows that the cardinality of the energy supplies from the energy provider for the optimal control strategy is no more than two. This result implies a simple objective of the optimal energy control strategy. When additional side information is available for the adversary, the optimal control strategy and privacy risk are compared with the case of leaking smart meter readings to the adversary only.


We investigate resource allocation scheme to reduce the energy consumption of federated learning (FL) in the integrated fog-cloud computing enabled Internet-of-things (IoT) networks. In the envisioned system, IoT devices are connected with the centralized cloud server (CS) via multiple fog access points (F-APs). We consider two different scenarios for training the local models. In the first scenario, local models are trained at the IoT devices and the F-APs upload the local model parameters to the CS. In the second scenario, local models are trained at the F-APs based on the collected data from the IoT devices and the F-APs collaborate with the CS for updating the model parameters. Our objective is to minimize the overall energy-consumption of both scenarios subject to FL time constraint. Towards this goal, we devise a joint optimization of scheduling of IoT devices with the F-APs, transmit power allocation, computation frequency allocation at the devices and F-APs and decouple it into two subproblems. In the first subproblem, we optimize the IoT device scheduling and power allocation, while in the second subproblem, we optimize the computation frequency allocation. For each scenario, we develop a conflict graph based solution to iteratively solve the two subproblems. Simulation results show that the proposed two schemes achieve a considerable performance gain in terms of the energy consumption minimization. The presented simulation results interestingly reveal that for a large number of IoT devices and large data sizes, it is more energy efficient to train the local models at the IoT devices instead of the F-APs.


Objective: To assess and compare the marginal fit of screw retained three unit implant superstructure, before and after spark erosion. Methodology: An experimental model was prepared on which three unit screw retained implant superstructure on two implant analogs (cortex system) was fabricated which was then subjected to spark erosion. Sheffield test (one screw test) was carried out to determine the passivity. Assessment of vertical discrepancy was carried out using stereomicroscopic images of the superstructure and implant analog junction pre- and post-spark erosion with the help of image J analysis software. Results: The implant superstructure fabricated with the conventional casting method were fitting actively on the implant analogs indicating a negative Sheffield test. However, following spark erosion passive fit was achieved. The marginal fit of the cast implant superstructure measured from a reference point on the superstructure to the implant analog margin was 4324.56 μm before spark erosion and 4046.57 μm after spark erosion. Conclusion: Spark erosion technology with further research can be used to maximum efficiency to obtain passive fit of implant


Predicting how Congressional legislators will vote is important for understanding their past and future behavior. However, previous work on roll-call prediction has been limited to single session settings, thus not allowing for generalization across sessions. In this paper, we show that text alone is insufficient for modeling voting outcomes in new contexts, as session changes lead to changes in the underlying data generation process. We propose a novel neural method for encoding documents alongside additional metadata, achieving an average of a 4% boost in accuracy over the previous state-of-the-art.


Objectives Dysphagia-related sequelae are common after head and neck cancer treatment. Our aims were 1) to document overall and site-specific dysphagia, stricture, and pneumonia rates in a Medicare population, 2) to calculate treatment-specific rates and adjusted odds of developing these complications, and 3) to track changes in rates between 1992 and 1999. Methods Head and neck cancer patients between 1992 and 1999 were identified in combined Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) registry and Medicare databases. Multivariate analyses determined odds of dysphagia, stricture, and pneumonia based on modality. Results Of 8,002 patients, 40% of experienced dysphagia, 7% stricture, and 10% pneumonia within 3 years of treatment. In adjusted analyses, patients treated with chemoradiation had more than 2.5-times-greater odds of dysphagia than did those treated with surgery alone. Combined therapy was associated with increased odds of stricture (p < 0.05). The odds of pneumonia were increased in patients treated with radiation with or without chemotherapy. Temporally, the dysphagia rates increased 10% during this period (p < 0.05). Conclusions Sequelae of head and neck cancer treatment are common and differ by treatment regimen. Those treated with chemoradiation had higher odds of experiencing dysphagia and pneumonia, whereas patients treated with any combined therapy more commonly experienced stricture. These sequelae represent major sources of morbidity and mortality in this population.


Advances in remote sensing methods such as lidar and photogrammetry have allowed acquiring Digital Elevation Models (DEM) at centimetric to metric resolution. Such topographic detail reveals rock face geological structures to allow the semi-automatic structural analysis of mountain slope (Jaboyedoff et al., 2007; Dewez et al., 2016). It is an important step for the stability analysis of unstable rock compartments. Current techniques include the automatic detection of planar surfaces corresponding to visible discontinuities (joints, fractures, etc.), and analysis of their orientation frequency and extend. With this realistic description of how the rock massifs are divided into blocks (with attitude and spacing), rockfall risk assessment still needs to focus on slope stability analysis. The work presented here describes the results of the custom code TOPOCRACKS which divides a high resolution topography by sets of fractures and compute the rupture mechanisms and stability factors of resulting block. It is applied on a 1-m-resolution airborne lidar DEM of a natural hillslope in Ota, Corsica. Field structural observations on site revealed the presence of three fracture sets. So for this toy example, each of the fracture sets was deamed to be 1-m appart. Computation of blocks delimited by fracture intersections generates about 26 000 potentially unstable rock compartments in this area of ca. 600x400 m². As overhangs are very rare in this area, the method was developed in 2.5 D, and the following mechanisms of failure were considered: planar sliding, wedge sliding. The stability of each rock compartment was assessed by performing static analysis. Static analysis takes into account cohesion of joints, friction angles at discontinuities and percentage of rock bridges. Results are compared with expert methodology of rockfall risk assessment at the same study site, and show good agreement for the localization of source areas, the size of the biggest possible event, and the more probable mechanisms of rupture per source areas.


We describe a new primitive proboscidean, Daouitherium rebouli gen. et sp. nov., from the early Ypresian of the Ouled Abdoun Basin, Morocco, which also yielded Phosphatherium. It is the earliest known large mammal from Africa and one of the oldest known proboscideans. It has true lophodont molars similar to those of Barytherium and Numidotherium .I t is closer to these genera and more advanced than Phosphatherium (e.g., morphology of the mandible), but it is also primi− tive in striking features known also in Phosphatherium (absence of diastema, retention of two additional teeth in front of p2). A parsimony analysis of Daouitherium suggests its intermediate phylogenetic position between the basal, small Phosphatherium and the large, more derived Numidotherium and Barytherium. Daouitherium is a better candidate for the ancestry of N. koholense than Phosphatherium, but it is also specialized. Daouitherium and Numidotherium may belong to the same basal radiation of "Barytherioidea". However, the family referral of Daouitherium is uncertain (Numidotheriidae?). The discovery of such a large and derived proboscidean with respect to Phosphatherium in the same African beds of such antiquity is evidence of an unexpected early diversity of proboscideans and of the old origin of the order. It also supports the African origin of Proboscidea s.s.


Summary Regenerative injection therapy (prolotherapy) is a treatment modality that can help cure chronic pain when it is the result of specific musculoskeletal causes. Chronic pain has no physiologic or protective role in humans and becomes a disease if not relieved during its acute stage. It therefore demands a change in treatment strategy and requires physicians to focus on the pain as a chronic disease and not an acute illness. Modifying the underlying physiology is often the only way to modify this pain. By recruiting the body's own healing forces, new connective tissue can be generated at specific locations that can change the natural history of the chronic pain. Regenerative injection therapy is a treatment that has helped thousands of patients overcome their chronic pain.


Factors stimulating the increase in the numbers of Escherichia coli bacteria and accelerating their death were studied. It was shown that oscillations in the numbers of viable bacteria are due to periodic changes in the activity of these two factors, which do not coincide in phase. The oscillations in cell numbers occur only at particular cell concentrations.